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Baby Zest: Busy Mummy’s Chicken & Corn Soup

With the colder weather approaching and with it the perpetual cycle of germs brought home from daycare, I think you will find this recipe very handy to nurse the poorly darlings.

It was a testing weekend with bubby contracting conjunctivitis and hubby debilitated by a mysterious bug that was even worse than the dreaded “Man Flu” (Yes! now you understand what kind of weekend I had! :)) So I was left holding the fort together with my trusty stead, Mozart the not-so-mini schnauzer who was very good with emotional support.

Miss One also seemed to have lost her appetite and it was a real struggle to get her to take enough fluids. Being a first time mum, I even umm’ed and ahh’ed several times about whether to take her to hospital in the middle of the night as I was concerned about her being dehydrated. Luckily she came around the next morning and accepted some milk so I waited till the medical centre opened to see the GP.

This bout of illness in our household was the prompt for this chicken soup recipe – chicken soup is well known miracle comfort food for illness after all, especially if it’s named after some female relative. I almost called it “the Cheat’s chicken soup” or “the lazy mum’s chicken soup” but it just lacked the cosiness of something like Nanna Rosie or Aunt Dotty and also I decided to cut myself and all the busy mums out there a bit of slack. We should be kinder to ourselves and give ourselves credit for getting dinner on the table while juggling everything else, especially sick kids (and husbands)! So Busy Mummy’s chicken and corn soup it is!

This is a simple soup but it does the job – Miss One loved it and I got some good stuff into her – fluid and all. She seems to resort to moist foods when she’s unwell and soups seem to be a hit.

So where I “cheat” is using a Campbell’s chicken and corn tinned soup as the soup base. Instead of following the instructions on the tin, I mix it with 1.5 tins of water, followed by all the fresh ingredients – corn kernels, shiitake mushrooms and chicken. That’s where it ends for the soup served for bubs.

But to make it a little more special for the grown-ups (and sick husbands!), I prepared ginger matchsticks and coriander leaves to be added to the soup as desired. So result is that I had personalised chicken soup for both my sick DD and DH. And then the next day, I added some cooked rice to the soup for Miss One to give it a bit more bulk and she happily ate that too. Happy days.

So next time your loved ones need a bit of comfort food to nurse their colds, give this a go.

And a reminder, make your busy lives just that little bit easier by having a searchable storage for all your favourite recipes: Zest Recipe Manager!

Baby Zest – A Busy Mum’s Chicken & Corn Soup

Recipe Type: soup

Author: Jane Sankey

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Total time: 17 mins

Serves: 6 cups

A quick and easy chicken soup to comfort the little bub when she needs that extra cuddle